PFI crackdown: In its fifth chargesheet this month against the Popular Front of India (PFI), the NIA filed expenses against 19 people, together with 12 National Executive Council (NEC) members of the banned outfit, for his or her alleged involvement in a conspiracy to wage a struggle for establishing an Islamic Caliphate within the nation, an official stated.
With the submitting of chargeheet within the Delhi case on Saturday (March 18), the overall variety of accused chargesheeted in PFI instances throughout the nation by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) now stands at 105, a spokesperson of the federal company stated.
The PFI was shaped in 2006 with the merger of National Development entrance (NDF) of Kerala and Karnataka Forum for Dignity (KFD) with Oma Salam turning into its Chairman, E M Abdul Rahiman Vice-chairman, V P Nazaruddin National Secretary, Anees Ahmed the nationwide basic secretary of the NEC, the highest decision-making physique within the outfit.
List of 19 accused people:
The 19 accused chargesheeted below numerous sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act included- Salam, Rahiman, Nazaruddin, Ahmed, Afsar Pasha, E Abubacker, Prof P Koya and Mohammed Ali Jinnah, the spokesperson stated.
Abdul Wahid Sait, AS Ismail, Mohd Yusuf, Mohammed Basheer, Shafeer KP, Jaseer Okay P, Shahid Nasir, Waseem Ahmed, Mohammed Shakif, Muhammed Farooq Ur Rahman and Yasar Arafat alias “Yasir Hasan” had been another key place holders within the NEC named within the chargesheet, the official stated. They had been arrested in September final yr (2022) following a nationwide crackdown at 39 places, together with PFI places of work, throughout the nation after the group was banned by the Ministry of Home Affairs.
“The case, under investigation since April 2022, had revealed that a criminal conspiracy was hatched by the PFI to divide the country on communal lines. It has also come to light that the ultimate objective of the conspiracy was to overthrow the existing system of secular and democratic governance in India and replace it with an Islamic Caliphate,” the spokesperson stated.
NIA probe:
The NIA stated its investigations have additionally uncovered a path of funding by the PFI to its terror operatives and weapons trainers throughout the nation, each in money and thru common financial institution transfers, within the guise of fee of salaries.
“All these PFI trainers have been arrested in cases registered either by the NIA or by different state police forces. The NIA has also frozen 37 bank accounts of the PFI organisation as well as 40 bank accounts belonging to 19 individuals associated with the PFI, virtually squeezing the organisation’s funding activities,” the spokesperson stated.
The official stated the crackdown on these financial institution accounts occurred throughout the nation together with Guwahati (Assam), Sundipur (West Bengal), Imphal (Manipur), Kozhikode (Kerala), Chennai (Tamil Nadu), New Delhi, Jaipur (Rajasthan), Bengaluru (Karnataka), Hyderabad (Telangana) and Kurnool (Andhra Pradesh).
“Investigations have revealed that the PFI, acting under the cover of building a mass organisation and a socio-political movement, was actually putting together a highly motivated, trained and secretive elite force within the larger organisation to achieve its pernicious and violent long-term objectives of establishment of Islamic rule by 2047,” the spokesperson stated.
The company stated PFI had devised a well-planned technique to wage an armed battle by radicalising and recruiting Muslim youth who had already pledged their allegiance to the outfit and its ideology and techniques by administration of oath of secrecy and loyalty. “These highly radicalised men were being trained in the use of arms and weapons in various Arms Training camps being conducted by the PFI across the country with the intention of raising a well-trained PFI Army/militia,” the spokesperson stated.
“Recovery of the vision document of the PFI, seized in various cases of NIA, clearly proves the conspiracy of the central leadership in recruitment, weapons training, and keeping the cadre ready for an armed rebellion in the future to establish an Islamic Caliphate by the year 2047,” the spokesperson stated. The NIA stated the investigations have additionally uncovered PFI’s mechanism of amassing particulars of leaders of organisations aligned with a selected group and of those that didn’t subscribe to their views, to be able to commit murders by its service groups or hit squads.
“Since the outfit was formed in 2006, PFI cadres have been involved in a series of murders and violent attacks in the country, including those of leaders of organisations who are at variance with the PFI on religious ideas and beliefs,” the company stated.
The spokesperson stated the investigations additionally revealed that the PFI was elevating or amassing funds from inside India and overseas for unleashing violent and terrorist acts in numerous components of India, together with the states of Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Telangana, Bihar, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, and Delhi.
“The PFI office bearers, leaders, cadres and members were also involved in radicalizing and recruiting Muslim youth to join proscribed terror organizations like the Islamic State,” the official stated. The NIA had registered the case suo motu primarily based on credible inputs within the wake of the arrest of two youths by the Uttar Pradesh Anti-Terror Squad (ATS) in February 2021.
Anshad Badruddin and Firoz Khan had been nabbed whereas planning to trigger bomb blasts on the event of Basant Panchami with the intention of putting terror among the many people of a selected spiritual group and the general public at giant, the spokesperson stated.
Besides arms and ammunition, the UP ATS seized from Badruddin, an lively PFI coach and operative since 2010, a diary containing handwritten-text in Malayalam which contained coded directions and pointers on finishing up rioting, technique for assaults throughout riots, path to be adopted by PFI’s native space leaders, reconnaissance and the way and the place to trigger bomb blasts. Financed by PFI management, Badruddin had been travelling to totally different states for recruiting people into the PFI and imparting weapons coaching within the guise of Physical Education lessons, the official stated.
“Investigations revealed that Badruddin, along with another PFI cadre Masud Ahmed, was planning to commit terrorist acts. He was found to have received about Rs 4 lakh from various PFI bank accounts for this purpose. Ahmed, who was arrested in October 2020 by the UP Police, had also received money from the PFI,” the spokesperson stated.
Among others who had equally acquired funds from the PFI for terrorist actions within the nation had been Mohammed Abdul Ahad, who was charge-sheeted in Hyderabad in December 2022 and continues to be absconding, Mohammed Irfan, chargesheeted in Hyderabad in December 2022, and Abdul Khader Puttur, arrested in Bengaluru in September 2022.
(With PTI inputs)
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